February Mini: Scrappy Snowballs

 I have had Snowball quilt blocks on the brain since the beginning of 2022.

Snowballs may seem a bit out of place in New Orleans, especially since our winter weather rarely features snow.  

The last time it snowed in New Orleans was December, 2008.  Hardly enough snow for snowballs!
 

 On the other hand, we love our warm-weather snowballs, and consider our version of the summer-time treat to be the best!

The first ice shaving machine was invented in New Orleans in 1936.  The SnoWizard machine started the  New Orleans snowball tradition, and the popularity of snowballs has never waned.

Our snowballs are made with finely shaved ice and heavenly syrup flavors.  At your neighborhood snowball stand you'll find a myriad of fruit flavors as well as local favorites like wedding cake and cream of nectar (nectar was a popular local soft drink flavor back in the day: a combo of almond and vanilla).   There are even "gourmet" snowball emporiums that dish out flavors like vanilla orchid cream, rosehips raspberry, and ginger cayenne.

But I digress.  

 

 My February mini was inspired by a similar quilt I saw online, and the happy chance of finding a stack of 2.5 inch blue squares in my reproduction fabric scrap bin.

The snowballs finished at 2 inches.  The checkered border didn't work out exactly, but that's OK with me.  Most of the fabrics in the top were scraps - just a small amount of yardage was cut to get enough snowball blocks...and the binding.

I found this cute teacup toile in my stash - just right for the backing.

I used a single fold binding again for this quilt.  I'm definitely glad I added this technique to my bag of quilting tricks.

And now I hope I've satisfied my craving for snowballs!

Finish Your Veggies!

I did a little happy dance earlier this week when I finished a quilt that has been a WIP for far too long!

 

The fabrics are from a collection by Kathy Hall for Andover Fabrics which was released in 2008.  The designs are woodblock prints made with vegetable-based dyes.  I started piecing the quilt in late 2011 and put the finishing stitches in the binding this past weekend.

 

My local longarm quilter, Cindy Braiwick, used an all-over paisley-like design.

 

I didn't get a great photograph of the quilting, but I thought you might like to see the backing fabric, a beige background with gold-ish script handwriting.

 

The finished quilt only measures 54" x 54".  I wish I could've made it bigger, but I didn't have any more large pieces of fabric to make the snowballs.   The pattern is still available on the APQ website - it's great for showing off fabrics without cutting them into small pieces. 

The good news is I have lots of scraps,

 

including a bunch of bonus triangles, so there's definitely another Vegetable Dye quilt in my future!